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ORCID
https://orcid.org/0009-0006-2962-3668
Date of Graduation
5-15-2025
Semester of Graduation
Spring
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
Department of Graduate Psychology
First Advisor
David Szwedo
Abstract
Adolescence is a critical period for the development of emotion regulation skills and parents play a pivotal role in the shaping of such skills. Indeed, several characteristics of the parent-child relationship have been implicated in adolescents’ emotional development. Namely, parental acceptance of adolescents’ emotions, the quality of parent-child attachment, and the tactics parents utilize to resolve conflict with their child appear to be significant sources of influence. The current study aimed to examine each of these three factors as possible predictors of adolescents’ emotion regulation abilities later in life. Additionally, this study sought to understand the relative strength of these parental variables as predictors of emotion regulation outcomes when considering other variables that are likely to contribute to emotional development during adolescence, such as peer influence. A longitudinal design was utilized during data collection to assess parent-child relationship characteristics during adolescence and emotion regulation abilities during young adulthood. Hierarchical regression analyses provided some support for the parental variables of interest as predictors of adolescents’ later emotion regulation abilities. However, nearly all significant associations identified were between father-child relationship characteristics and emotion regulation outcomes. Evidence for mother-child relationship characteristics as predictors of emotion regulation abilities was scant. Further, parent-child attachment and conflict resolution tactics, specifically parental physical aggression, appeared to be relatively stronger predictors of emotion regulation than parental acceptance.
